We just spent a week on the Intracoastal Waterway, and I am still trying to figure out what just happened. Sections were blackwater, dark red or brown water that is stained by tannins from decaying vegetation in the watershed.
I forgot about this. The last time I saw this I was 22, and on a cargo boat in the Amazon. The sky was perfectly mirrored on the flat surface of the dark river, reflecting a twin jungle in 360 degrees. On the ICW, the effect looks like this:
There’s a bunch of other stuff that is ecologically unique with blackwater, and I’m hoping to learn more about that as well as the two larger inland waterbodies we cruised, the Pamlico and Albermarle Sounds.
What else is ecologically unique? Dying to know more!!!
Well, its a different pH, dark but not turbid, different plankton than whitewater nearby…I have inquired with some folks at Duke Marine Lab who study the stuff. More will be revealed!